Automotive vehicles, including automobiles, trucks, recreational vehicles and so forth, are considered by some users simply as a means to go from point A to point B. Other owners of automotive vehicles, for a variety of reasons, want a certain degree of luxury in their vehicles. One way this is accomplished is by the judicious use of padding within the vehicle interior. For some elements, such as dashboards, padding acts as both an aesthetic feature and safety feature. Other padded areas, such as inside door panels, are padded primarily for aesthetic reasons.
In a certain class of vehicles the use of door pullstraps on the inside surface of the door has become popular. These pullstraps have become popular in part because they intrude just a short distance into the interior of the vehicle while providing the user a firm and secure hand hold for closing the door. These pullstraps have been made padded for both aesthetic reasons and for the comfort of the user. One way to do so is to construct the strap having a flexible steel strip as a base and at least partially covering the steel strip with a padding material, typically a soft foam. This is wrapped with a vinyl covering so that the edges of the vinyl covering overlap at the side of the strap facing the interior of the vehicle. The exposed vinyl edge is covered by a decorative strip so to mask the seam. This provides an attractive structure which is comfortable to use and producible at a reasonable cost. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,054 for an example of such a pullstrap.
Although this method of manufacture works well for pullstraps, it has not been adaptable to what is termed in this application as casket handles. Casket handles have a U-shape with an elongate base and parallel legs. The handle is pivotally mounted to a support surface, typically an inside door panel, at the distal ends of the legs. The support surface is often configured so that when the handle is lying against the support surface it is generally flush with the support surface. Casket handles are often preferred over other types of hardware because they need not intrude into the passenger compartment when not in use.
Thus what is missing in the art is a padded casket handle which can be manufactured in mass quantities at reasonable cost and provide years of trouble-free use for the user.